Sunday, March 10, 2013

Weather Rewind: March 3-9, 2013

Temperatures last week averaged out 0.4 degrees above average -- you can thank Saturday's 62 degree high for bumping temperatures for the week above average as the day was the warmest day we've had locally since January 31st. The balance of the week was chilled, influenced by the coastal storm impacting our region on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with rain and snow. Wednesday's precipitation was incredibly modest when compared to model hype, with Friday's snow a bit extra in some circles compared to model hype. Nothing like a March coastal storm to wreak havoc on two days worth of forecasts in New Jersey. So, why not go from snow to sixty on Saturday? The fickleness of March for the win.

Nationally, snow cover remains in much of the Northeast and across the Midwest -- 39/7 percent of the country has snow on the ground as of this morning, over twice as much as what we had last year at this time and not too far away from what we had a month ago at this time (43 percent). Last year's uber warmth of March (we hit 70 three times by the middle of the month) likely does not get matched this year...but we certainly will start to have some nice days over the coming weeks as we climb out of the rut of winter's chill.